GM crops evidence 'not available'

Science is not yet ready to answer all the questions about genetically modified crops, warns a new case study sponsored by the Economic Social Research Council, the UK's largest research funding agency.

This is despite the fact that ministers are poised to make major announcements on policy.

Dr Ruth Levitt, senior visiting research fellow at the ESRC, Queen Mary, University of London, says many questions are not about hard "facts" but about values and arguments that are construed very differently by the interested parties.

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett is expected to make an announcement in February on whether the Government will allow GM oil seed rape, sugar beet and maize to be grown commercially in the UK.

But according to Dr Levitt, the implications of the Government's decision go way beyond the particular fate of these crops.

She said: "The underlying question, what are the potential benefits of GM crops and foods, and the possible risks to human health and to the environment, cannot yet be answered "factually" because the necessary evidence simply does not exist."

She added that, even where policy and practice have been developed over many generations, such as for health care, education or conventional farming, there may still be little in the way of reliable "facts".

Her paper says that the very act of gathering facts on which to base decisions is itself actively reshaping the whole process, as the various interested parties are presented with material with which to refresh their positions and reassess tactics.

In the case of GM, the Government has to take decisions on both the specific level as to whether the crops should be allowed into the UK or cultivated here, as well as on the wider, political and ideological plane.

The wider decision is whether the Government can genuinely uphold different stakeholders' ranges of options in parallel; for example, so people can knowingly eat the safe food they want at the same time as scientists, industry and farmers can pursue the types of work and reward they want, says the paper.

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